James Wakibia/Getty Images
in the middle of the worst drought in 40 yearsIn the northern parched areas of the country, rivers have dried up and millions of livestock have died from lack of food. About 4.4 million Kenyans do not have enough to eat, making the situation even worse. coming rainy season Fails like the previous five. “I’ve never seen anything this bad. There’s nothing on the farm. The drought is too severe,” says Daniel Magondo, a cotton and maize grower in central Kenya.
A record-breaking drought forces Kenya to face a controversial topic. That is whether countries should grow genetically modified (GM) crops. These are plants that have had genes from another organism inserted into their DNA to give them new traits, such as resistance to disease or drought. GM crops are perfectly safe to eat, grew up wide Governments in many parts of the world, including Europe and East Africa, are opposing them in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and India.
This was the case in Kenya in 2012. banned their importThe ban lasted until 2019, when the government allowed the import of GM cotton engineered to be resistant to pests called genetically modified cotton. cotton bugAnd in October 2022, the Cabinet declared that farmers would be able to grow pest-resistant GM maize. Since 2015, the armyworm has ravaged maize crops and is estimated to have destroyed his third of Kenya’s maize. a year manufacturing.
In a statement released in October, Kenya’s cabinet said GM maize would help improve the country’s food supply and alleviate some of the pressure of the ongoing drought. I ordered 11 tons of widely cultivated pest resistant GM maize seed. trial in KenyaBut then, in February 2023, Kenya’s GMO regulator banned the release of the seeds after four legal complaints were filed, three in Kenyan courts and one in the East African Court of Justice. rice field.
A complaint was submitted by the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT), an environmental non-profit organization in Uganda. Others were submitted by the Kenya Farmers Federation and Kenyan attorney Paul Mwangi. CEFROHT says Kenya’s decision violates the East African Community Treaty, which requires East African countries to protect their natural resources. Other groups are concerned that growing GM maize will shift the farmer’s focus away from indigenous crops, and with the planting season fast approaching, he will have to wait until a court decides to stop him in Kenya. The future of GM crops is in limbo.
Timothy Machi welcomed the withdrawal of the GM ban. Machi, Kenya’s leader of the development NGO RePlanet Africa, which campaigns to improve food security in Africa, said: So when news broke that the move was challenged in court, Machi helped organize protests in Nairobi and neighboring Uganda’s Kampala. In two cities, about 200 scientists and campaigners marched in support of his GM crops. They held up signs reading “GMOs for food security” and promoted the hashtag “Let Kenya Eat”.
